Fallout: Project Brazil Renamed Fallout: New California

RPS alerted us to something slightly interesting yesterday, so I will now share that here for you.

Fallout: New California has been in development for almost eight years, started in October 2009. Radian-Helix released several short beta versions in 2013 but nothing since. But back in June, they showed a two-hour, five-part look at its then-current alpha state. Here, this starts with a brief recap and coos at how much prettier parts have become over the years, then launches into gameplay.

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Only time will tell if a fancy new name will bear fruit, but it definitely sounds better.

I always thought is was an allusion to the dulldrums of vault life, or the juxtaposition of a happy upbeat song with the violence of the wasteland etc. I was also thinking they were fans of the Gilliam film of the same name and used the song either to set the tone or just fan wankery.

Nobody really understood why it was called Project Brazil when it had nothing to do with Brazil.

Fallout New California seems more appropriate since it's literally set in New California.

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That's because people are dumb and never heard of the 80's Dystopian Brazil movie (which is one of the most highly regarded movies ever), which has nothing to do with the country either. This project kinda started based on the movie, but then it evolved into something different.

EDIT:

Lee named the mod "Project Brazil" partly due to inspiration by the Terry Gilliam film Brazil, and as a nod to Black Isle Entertainment through the Irish myth of the mythological island of Brasil.

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What inspired you to make it to begin with? Where does the name come from? Fallout: Project Brazil started out as a dream I had just a few weeks after I moved back to Tucson after a failed attempt at living in LA. The studio I was working for went bankrupt, and I was forced to abandon the city or face massive debt. I got out just in time to keep my credit and not get devoured by wild hipsters on the dystopian streets of Studio City.

I had been playing with the GECK [Garden of Eden Creation Kit, the mod tools for Fallout 3] for a week or two and was inspired by a really lucent dream of digitally destroying the city that had forced me into retreat. It was a way for me to process that feeling of powerlessness before the intangible enemy of impinging economic doom. After watching Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, I named my first plugin “Project Brazil,” and the name stuck.

Years later when we were getting ready to release Part One, we polled Facebook and the followers there overwhelming voted to keep it. So it stuck.

The name was slowly integrated into the plot as the name of the pre-war conspiracy behind the major events in the story, so “Project Brazil” has relevance now that it was never initially intended to have. It still has nothing to do with the country. It has a hidden meaning to do with the Irish myth of the Island of Brasil, which is an island off the coast which can never be reached, vanishing into the mist as you sail for it – kind of like my dream of working for Black Isle Studios as a kid, since they evaporated and formed Obsidian. Still there, but forever just out of reach.

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People even voted to keep the name back then. So I guess many knew why it was called that.